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Novel by Douglas Coupland From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microserfs is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland published by HarperCollins in 1995. It first appeared in short story form[1] as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of Wired magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length.[2] Set in the early 1990s, it captures the state of the technology industry before Windows 95, and anticipates the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.
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Author | Douglas Coupland |
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Cover artist | William Graef |
Language | English |
Genre | Epistolary novel |
Set in | Redmond, Washington and Silicon Valley, 1993–94 |
Publisher | Regan Books, HarperCollins |
Publication date | June 1995 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 371 (Hardback) |
ISBN | 0-06-039148-0 (USA hardback), ISBN 0-00-224404-7 (Canada hardback) |
OCLC | 32167397 |
813/.54 20 | |
LC Class | PS3553.O855 M53 1995 |
Preceded by | Life After God |
Followed by | Polaroids from the Dead |
The novel is presented in the form of diary entries maintained on a PowerBook by the narrator, Daniel. Because of this, as well as its formatting and usage of emoticons, this novel is similar to what emerged a decade later as the blog format.
Coupland revisited many of the ideas in Microserfs in his 2006 novel JPod, which has been labeled "Microserfs for the Google generation".[3]
The plot of the novel has two distinct movements: the events at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and the move to Silicon Valley and the "Oop!" project.
The novel begins in Redmond as the characters are working on different projects at Microsoft's main campus. Life at the campus feels like a feudalistic society, with Bill Gates as the lord, and the employees the serfs. The majority of the main characters—Daniel (the narrator), Susan, Todd, Bug, Michael, and Abe—are living together in a "geek house", and their lives are dedicated to their projects and the company. Daniel's foundations are shaken when his father, a longtime employee of IBM, is laid off. The lifespan of a Microsoft coder weighs heavily on Daniel's mind.
The second movement of the novel begins when the characters are offered jobs in Silicon Valley working on a project for Michael, who has by then left Redmond. All of the housemates—some immediately, some after thought—decide to move to the Valley.
The characters' lives change drastically once they leave the limited sphere of the Microsoft campus and enter the world of "One-Point-Oh". They begin to work on a project called "Oop!" (a reference to object-oriented programming). Oop! is a Lego-like design program, allowing dynamic creation of many objects, bearing a resemblance to 2009's Minecraft (Coupland appears on the rear cover of the novel's hardcover editions photographed in Denmark's Legoland Billund, holding a Lego 777.).
One of the undercurrents of the plot is Daniel and his family's relationship to Jed, Daniel's younger brother who died in a boating accident while they were children.
It always amazes me that 90 per cent of people in the States now work directly around a PC. That's like a billion person-hours a day spent, and yet none of the stories we tell, or the books we write, take place in an office. There's just so much of the human soul and imagination in that strange environment now. I'm amazed we don't see 50 books a week on office life.
Coupland lived in Redmond, Washington for six weeks and Palo Alto, Silicon Valley for four months researching the lives of Microsoft workers.[5][6][7] "It was a 'Gorillas in the Mist' kind of observation… What do they put in their glove compartments? What snack foods do they eat? What posters are on their bedroom walls?"[8] Friends from Microsoft and Apple also helped him with research.[4]
The novel was a radical departure from Coupland's previous novel, Life After God. "I wrote the two books under radically different mind-sets, and Serfs was a willful rerouting into a different realm".[9] Coupland first noticed that his art school friends were working in computers in 1992.[10]
Coupland's research turned up links to the themes of Life After God. "What surprised me about Microsoft is that no one has any conception of an afterlife. There is so little thought given to eternal issues that their very absence make them pointedly there. These people are so locked into the world, by default some sort of transcendence is located elsewhere, and obviously machines become the totem they imbue with sacred properties, wishes, hopes, goals, desires, dreams. That sounds like 1940s SF, but it's become the world."[10]
The book takes place first at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington (near Seattle) and then Silicon Valley (near San Francisco). The time period is 1993–1995, at a time when Microsoft has reached dominance in the software industry and emerged victorious from the "Look & Feel" lawsuit by Apple Inc., a company that had at times seemed in danger of falling apart. The Northridge earthquake takes place during the story and has a profound effect on Ethan, who eventually constructs a replica highway interchange out of Lego pieces to honor the infrastructure destroyed by the earthquake.
When Microserfs first came out, most people thought it was a tightly focused anthropological look at a tiny group of historically transient information workers in the American Pacific Northwest. It turns out they were forming a template of the way everyone else in the world works in and around information. As time went on it became a lot broader, instead of a lot narrower, which is what happened with Generation X.
Coupland's interest in the world of Microsoft and technology workers began with the publication of a short story in Wired magazine in 1994. The story would later be expanded into the novel.
Shortly before the publication of Microserfs, Coupland began to distance himself from his label as spokesperson for Generation X.
Coupland's novel anticipated the outcome of the late-1990s dot-com bubble with his depiction of the Oop! project's search for capital.[12]
The abridged audiobook for Microserfs was read by Matthew Perry.
Several coded messages are included within the text:[13]
"I heart Lisa Computers
This is my computer. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My computer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me, my computer is useless. Without my computer, I am useless. I must use my computer true. I must compute faster than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must outcompute him before he outcomputes me. I will. Before God, I swear this creed. My computer and myself are defenders of this country. We are masters of our enemy. We are the saviours of my life. So be it until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.
Tinned Peaches Yttrium San Fran"
This message is an adapted version of the Rifleman's Creed.
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